WorkLink is on the move.
The burgeoning employment society that services the West Shore to Port Renfrew re-opened the doors at their new 3179 Jacklin Road home Monday, leaving a Sooke Road location where the employment programs were running out of room, said WorkLink executive director Janice Booth.
“Worklink is very excited to be in our new location,” Booth said. “We know without a doubt we will better serve our clients at our new location. We outgrew our previous Sooke Road facility where we had served our West Shore clients for over 20 years.”
She said WorkLink takes over a 7,000-square-foot facility, leaving the 4,300-square-foot location behind to better serve approximately 1,500 case-managed job seekers a month. Up to 600 more can drop in on any given month.
“This community is growing so fast and we need to be able to grow to meet those growing needs. In our old building we weren’t able to accommodate all the needs of the clients coming in,” said community co-ordinator Jen Harrison.
“We were often using our lunch room as a way to swap off into a board room every once in a while and this will finally be a space where we can house our programs.”
Funded under a Work BC contract, the provincially-funded program now lives on a popular bus route providing quicker transportation, and has an elevator, an expanded research centre, larger group rooms and more private client meeting rooms.
“We try to connect people with meaningful employment and we have been serving this community for 35 years,” Harrison continued. “This is the best suited building we have ever had to be able to accommodate employment services in the West Shore.”
alim@goldstreamgazette.com